To help show why buying local is important, Asher modified a study done for Grand Rapids, Mich., that showed the benefits of that community buying local.

The Grand Rapids results found that a 10 percent shift of sales from chain stores to local businesses would result in $137 million more local economic activity and 1,600 new jobs. Asher said Reno-Sparks is 1.6 percent larger than the Michigan community.

After calculating the average income and population of Reno-Sparks, he determined that a 10 percent shift would translate to $350 million staying here in the local economy and 2,500 new jobs created in Reno-Sparks every year.

“You follow every single dollar; let the dollar do the talking,” he said.

There’s a type of business that falls in a gray area between chain stores and locally owned businesses, and that’s locally owned franchises.

Locally owned franchises

Hillary Schieve of the Reno City Council owns two franchise resale stores, Plato’s Closet and Clothes Mentor. These stores sell used clothing in popular brand names, and most of the time you could get a branded T-shirt or a pair of heels for 11 bucks or lower.

Schieve said she loves the concept of reselling clothes, and she’s seen a big shift since the recession in spending habits toward bargains — and she considers her stores locally owned.

“Because those dollars stay in our community, you just pay a franchise fee and that’s it,” Schieve said. “Cash (from selling your used clothes) goes right into a local customer and is spent locally.”

Schieve said running a business requires learning from mistakes.

“A lot of people think it looks so easy,” she said. “Any business isn’t easy — franchises could give you a false sense of hope, and mom-and-pops don’t have the freedom all of the time. You have to put in a lot of effort for a business.”

Jen Cole owns Once Upon A Child, which buys and sells used kids clothing. While it is a franchise, she sources 97 percent of products from local customers. The remaining 3 percent are new items.

In pre-Once Upon A Child times, Cole had a small online resale shop she managed from home. She considers her franchise to be a locally owned business, too.

Cole said her franchise supports several local charities with donations from customers. She said the franchise’s brand, Winmark, allows freedom for the owner to run the franchise. They are hands-off after the basic designing and concepts of the store — everything is up to the local owner.

“I’m about as local as I come,” Cole said. “Yes, I pay a small percentage of my sales to take advantage of the franchise system, but the vast majority of my profits and inventory dollars go directly back into the community.”

She agrees the buy-local movement is important to economic recovery.

“Knowing who owns the business and how they do it, and if they care about the local economy, is a responsible way to use your dollars,” she said.

Esther Dunaway and her daughter, Willa, work on sewing machines at PolyEsther's Costume Shop. (Marilyn Newton/RGJ)

Magical little store

There’s a magical little store in Midtown called PolyEsther’s Costume Boutique. Going on seven and a half years of business, owner Esther Dunaway gives back to the community by sitting in her cramped sewing room — making costumes and outfits from scratch.

Dunaway and her workers fix clothes and design one-of-a-kind custom-made outfits — “if you want it, we got it” — and whoever orders it first will be the only one to have it. They will not order it for anyone else.

She said shopping local improves a community’s quality of life.

“It’s an investment in our community and our children’s future,” Dunaway said. “In the end, we’ll all have minimum paying jobs and work for someone in another state or country. I think the world runs better when it’s on a personal scale.”

PolyEsther’s professional designers are local. They buy from locally owned art stores, such as Mill End Fabrics and Nevada Fine Arts, but sometimes they have to purchase materials from chain art stores as well.

“Although we can’t always get our supplies in town, we do our best to get everything we can,” Dunaway said. “Sometimes, people want wacky fabric that isn’t carried in Reno. We try to be really deliberate in shopping local.”

Dunaway said franchises don’t deserve to be demonized since they do the public good, too. She said they bring jobs to local people, and, when life is on the rocks, anything helps. She is happy to refer other customers to stores if they can’t find what they want at PolyEsther’s.

“Franchises do employ local people, which is always a good thing,” Dunaway said.

But, she added, “I think too much of our society has turned into commercialism. It’s not creative anymore. We’re not making our own stuff.”

Talking about a chain store that sells Halloween costumes, she said, “It’s just cheap crap in a bag. We do have some bag costumes, but we work really hard to find good companies and good quality.”

Losing local flavor

Because Asher is such a strong supporter of buying from mom-and-pop and local stores, he has his doubts about many franchises.

“There’s always franchise royalties,” he said. “If you have an office and structure outside of the area, what’s paying for that? Franchise royalties leave the community.”

Asher said the worst way to shop for something is to shop online because there’s zero benefit to the community: no jobs, no taxes. Spend your money with mom and pop, he said.

“Every community is losing the local flavor,” Asher said. “Now we look like in every city in California, not Reno, Nevada. We’ve lost it in a lot of areas, so we have to keep what we can that makes us unique and different.”

Junkee business

Jessica Schneider is the owner of the local vintage clothing exchange Junkee, and she just opened a clothing store for children, Sippees.

“I sometimes wish I bought a franchise — you make mistakes,” Schneider said. “Franchises provide handbooks, and places like Plato’s and Port of Subs already know where their markets are to advertise.”

But the beauty of it is that she doesn’t have to send any dollars to a corporate office.

“The benefits of supporting local businesses over national chains is that your money stays here,” Schneider said. “Doing your research before you shop also matters — you need to know how much employees are being paid and how they’re being treated by the business.”

“If I do well, the staff does well,” she said. “I don’t pay minimum wage, I pay higher and employ the best of the best.”

Schneider said she believes in helping other small businesses around her because they help Junkee. She said small franchises such as Plato’s and Once Upon A Child should be considered locally owned because they’re resale stores.

Order up

Newman’s Deli is a mom-and-pop shop that started in Reno 24 years ago — and has served more than two million people.

Owner Chuck Mantor said the produce and bread they use for their dishes are local, and that just 20 percent of other ingredients such as black Angus and pastrami come from other states.

Mantor used to work for franchises. He wants to continue buying from local and rural Nevada farms. He said the quality of his food is much different than a franchise such as Subway — and he doesn’t do combo meals.

“Franchises do not affect us,” he said. “Our market is a little different; we sell higher quality ingredients than most franchises.”

“We like to have good terms with everybody,” Mantor said, talking about competition with franchises. “We want people to do well.”

HQ Reno

Here’s a twist to this topic: In 1972, two siblings from New Jersey opened a sandwich shop in Sparks. Three years later, a public accountant named John Larsen purchased the business.

And Port of Subs was born. The official headquarters of the franchise spanning seven Western states is right here in Reno.

So should Port of Subs be recognized as a locally owned business?

Mike Powell, president of the company, said it’s not exactly locally owned but it’s definitely locally founded — and 50 percent of Port of Subs restaurants are in Nevada.

Other Port of Subs across the West wouldn’t be considered a local business here, he said, but there’s a connection.

“Some of our franchisees become franchisees because they were either born and raised in Reno, went to school here or have some sort of connection with the city,” Powell said. “They open up a Port of Subs because it reminds them of their childhood experiences or life experiences when they enjoyed Port of Subs.”

But the out-of-state restaurants only send a small portion of their income — five percent of sales — to the headquarters, Powell said.

“We pride ourselves with our community involvement and support,” Powell said. “We give back, participate and engage in what we can, including charity organizations.”

– Molly J. Moser is a student working with the Reinventing Reno project at the University of Nevada, Reno. —————————-

Contact information

Here are websites for some of the people, groups and sites related to this week’s story:

I own The Kostume Room in Wyoming Mi and we are a local business. We are open year round. The Halloween season is about 60 percent of our business and we really depend on this season. It seems like every year there are more and more seasonal Halloween stores coming into our area. Its getting more and more difficult to compete with them.

Hi, I own Dream Dinners in Carson City and yes Dream Dinners is a franchise so I do take it personally when it is said that 'we' are not a locally own businesses. While a small percentage goes to the corporate structure that helps to support my success the majority of my revenue goes to hire local people, pay Nevada business taxes, local payroll taxes, city/county taxes, local utilities, local rent, local insurance agents, local food vendors, local truck drivers that deliver my weekly orders, local advertising costs, -- I can continue and go on regarding all the money I have to spend locally to keep my business in operation. As stated above, the bigger spending concern should be the businesses that are frequented via the internet, they pay NOTHING into the Nevada economy. Locally owned franchises should be given the same consideration and support that 'locally' owned businesses are given and not shunned just because they took a different avenue to open their doors for business. Sorry for the rant but you evidently hit a sore spot with me.

Northern Nevada needs to diversify its economy. We need new industries that define us differently from an old western gambling town. There has been quite a bit of progress in this area but we have a long way to go. The initiative that Dave Asher has set in motion is an asset to our community. We need a variety of business activity that shows the face of the exceptional place we live.

Buy Local makes it to the Sunday paper! Thanks Mark for your very informative article. Yes franchises are a grey area in the Buy Local movement. Some don't source anything local and some get a lot from other locals. The amount of franchise royalties leaving the area is also very different. I make exceptions for Locally Owned franchises that do source from other locals, AND/OR they don't have direct Locally Owned Independent competition. By-the-way, Port of Subs IS locally owned because they are headquartered here. The fact that they bring money to Reno from other cities is a huge bonus and they deserve our support.